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Coach's
Corner
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Serving – The Toss
If you have
problems on your toss, believe me you are not alone. In a survey on
ball tossing problems it was one of the most mentioned components of
the serve when people were asked what they needed the most help on
when serving.
Here are 3 cures
for errant ball tosses.
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Your toss is too high or low: Height
of the toss is determined by the speed in which you lift your
tossing arm upward to release the ball. Bring your arm up faster
to increase the height or slower to decrease height. Remember to
relax and release the ball near the full extension of your arm.
Ideally, the ball should only drop 3 or 4 inches before you strike
it.
-
The toss arcs or drifts over you: The
tossing arm should come up parallel to the baseline. Bringing the
tossing arm up more parallel to the baseline will improve
ball-tossing placement and help to get your body turned sideways
to the net. On the contrary, bringing the arm up more towards the
net actually produces a toss that will drift back out of the court
behind the baseline.
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The toss goes
everywhere:
Palm up = big trouble:
This is where most of us get into trouble. Bring the ball up with
the palm of your hand sideways, not palm up. Hold the ball gently
like you are holding a glass of water, but with your ring finger
and little finger underneath the ball as if you were supporting
the glass with those two fingers. If your palm is up it is too
easy to flip the ball erratically with your fingers, wrist, or
even your elbow. When your hand is sideways the lifting of the
ball will only come from the shoulder. (See Fig. 1-recommended &
Fig. 2-not recommended).
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Figure 1 |
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Figure 2 |
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